0700 hours

Starting Position: Docked at Marist College waterfront, Poughkeepsie.
Latitude: 41˚ 43.2' N
Longitude: 073˚ 56.3' W

Day Five of the inaugural 2009 River Day Voyage.

With the departure of crew members Morton and Van der Merwe, here's the Half Moon crew roster for this leg of the voyage: Captain Reynolds, Kipp Van Aken, Diane Carey, Keith Cardoza, Pauli Dangerousli, Randi dell'Acqua, Ewout van Grondelle, Bob Hansen, Rick Vanden Heuvel, Brody Karn, Rachel Laufer, Laura Lee Linder, Doug Lyke, John W. Mangrum, Ben Mazer, Robert F. McGuigan, Jeff Morton, Patrick E. Noonan, Alex Padalka, Russell Polo, Matthew Ricchezza, Frank Rodriques, John Swartout, Chuck Thomas, and Patrick Wolfe.

0800 hours

Despite getting some rain overnight, we arise to greet overcast, but calm skies. As school groups and the public arrive at the Marist College Waterfront to view the ship, we prepare our dockside presenations.

As in Newburgh, our docents dress in period garb -- the baggy "slops" common to sailors of the day -- and demonstrate the skills and tools used on board.

Barry Keegan has also returned with his historical artifact exhibits and craftwork demonstrations.

Meanwhile, most of rest of the River Day Flotilla is docked a few miles downriver at Waryas Park, where they are offering dockside programs of their own.

1100 hours

Crew members who aren't directly participating in the dockside programs are still keeping busy; Ms. dell'Acqua is spending another morning scrubbing down the ship's transom.

Photo by Ewout van Grondelle

1245 hours

Coincidentally, on the same morning the Half Moon is docked at Marist College, the Hudson River Valley Greenway (external link) is holding a meeting in a neighboring boathouse.

They invite Captain Reynolds to speak at their meeting. Once they conclude, we return the favor by inviting any of their interested participants to step onboard for a tour of the ship.

Photo by Russel Polo

We even invited the noted Barnabas McHenry (external link), present in his role as Chair of the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council, to fire off a swivel gun salute for the crowd. (The same salute is also shown above.)

1300 hours

After a day of dockside activities around Poughkeepsie, the River Day Flotilla is rumbling to life once more. The Riverkeeper motors past on its way to Rogers Point to collect several flotilla vessels, including the Onrust.

1500 hours

After concluding our dockside programs, Captain Reynolds gathers the crew on deck to brief them on our departure and the rest of the day's itinerary.

1515 hours

Yesterday, we arrived at low tide. Now, our departure coincides with the tide coming in, with the end result being that Mr. Polo finds himself in knee-deep water as he frees our secondary stern line.

Our secondary lines now retrieved (and Mr. Polo no worse for wear), we haul in the rest of our docklines, with Mr. Keegan once again assisting dockside.

1530 hours

With that, we pull away from the dock, turning south to return to the Poughkeepsie waterfront.

Mouse over to salute Marist College.

We fire a salute to our hosts at Marist College as we leave.

Mouse over for a closer look.

1600 hours

At Waryas Park, we rejoin the Clearwater, which has just returned to the dock after its final public day sail.

Photo by Irene Marder

As the River Day Flotilla reconvenes, the Half Moon turns north once more.

Mouse over to salute Poughkeepsie.

Naturally, we take the opportunity to fire several more salutes to the city of Poughkeepsie.

Mouse over to give fire!

Give fire!

As the smoke disperses, we wave farewell to the gathered crowds.

With Poughkeepse behind us, we turn our attention upriver and set the top sails.

Happily, we have a slight southerly breeze to our backs, so we can take advantage of our sails for now while still sticking to the flotilla's schedule.

1645 hours

When we come to Rogers Point, we collect the rest of the flotilla...

Mouse over to salute Rogers Point.

...and fire off another salute for good measure.

1700 hours

The River Day Flotilla has now entered the Lange Rack, or Long Reach, a section of the Hudson River known for its long, straight, and narrow course.

1730 hours

The flotilla has reached Margaret Norrie State Park, and we've noticed a crowd of well-wishers at the park's paddleboat landing.

Naturally, this calls for more salutes!

1800 hours

Mouse over for a closer look.

Just north of Norrie Point we come to the Mills Mansion State Historic Site. A large crowd is scattered across the estate grounds, so we fire another salute as we pass. This is mansion country; we've already passed the historic homes of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

1815 hours

The John J Harvey is joined by a local tugboat as the River Day Flotilla rounds Esopus Lighthouse and closes in on its final destination for the day: Kingston.

1845 hours

As we approach, a number of small vessels emerge from Kingston's Roundout Creek to greet us.

Mouse over to chug along.

This includes a number of these vintage steam vessels, which blow salutes to the flotilla vessels as we arrive.

Mouse over for a closer look.

1845 hours

Opposite the mouth of Rondout Creek is the town of Rhinecliff, where the public has turned out to greet us.

The flotilla closes in to parade past the Rhinecliff crowds.

While our rig teams step into their decorative roles...

Mouse over to salute Rhinecliff.

...we fire several salutes to Rhinecliff.

Mouse over to give fire!

Reload and give fire!

Turning away from Rhinecliff, we face the mouth of Rondout Creek. The Woody Guthrie and numerous local recreational vessels are already parading past Rondout Lighthouse.

1900 hours

As the sun struggles to break through the overcast skies, the River Day Flotilla turns up into Rondout Creek, with the Half Moon leading the way.

Several interesting local craft are there to greet us.

Parking seems to be more of an issue in Kingston than we were led to believe.

Mouse over to salute Kingston.

We fire off a series of salutes as we make our way up Rondout Creek to Kingston.

1915 hours

As the city itself comes into focus, we see a truly massive crowd waiting to greet us.

Mouse over to give fire!

In addition to the swivel guns, we also fire a series of falconet salutes as we approach Kingston. Look closely at the shoreline in the sequence to the right and you might spot PT 728 (external link) greeting our approach with salutes of its own.

PT 728 , here at its home port in Kingston, is a fully restored WWII PT Boat now used for charter trips.

We fire off one final series of salutes as we close in on our goal:

...the Hudson River Maritime Museum, which is hosting the flotilla and tonight's festivities.

As we close in on the museum's dock, we see a sea of faces beaming up as us...

...and stretching out wherever we look...

...including up!

Wave for the camera!

1930 hours

Ending Position: Docked at Hudson River Maritime Museum, Kingston.
Latitude: 41˚ 55.1' N
Longitude: 073˚ 59.0' W

With local dockside assitance, the Half Moon quickly secures its dock lines.

Behind us, the rest of the River Day Flotilla nestles into place, and we can see the other crews settling in for the night.

Within minutes of our arrival, Nanne and Ankie perform a free concert for the crowd, simulcast on WAMC as this week's episode of the "Dancing on the Air with Jay and Molly" program. As night falls and the crowd enjoys the music, our crew kicks back for a relaxed night in downtown Kingston.

Next Time: Onward to Catskill!